More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)

Commonwealth Institute

(London W8)The educational and cultural centre of the *Commonwealth. Each member country has a permanent display in the building, where events of many kinds are organized to foster an understanding of this unique alliance of nations. The institute is the successor of the Imperial Institute, established in 1887 to celebrate Victoria's golden jubilee. It occupied a magnificent building in Exhibition Road, opened in 1893 but demolished in the late 1950s (all but its 85m/280ft bell tower) to make way for new buildings for the Imperial College of Science and Technology. The Commonwealth Institute, formally renamed by an act of parliament in 1958, moved at that time to a site between Kensington High Street and Holland Park. Its distinctive tent-like building (by Matthews & Johnson-Marshall) was opened in 1962.